Mine let her head hang low in shame. "So, that's it, huh? Okay. Better me than the rest of you, I guess."
"Mine," Ishi said, "please don't talk about yourself like that. It's just…it's not like you at all, y'know?"
Mine looked up at Ishi briefly, her confusion evident in her expression. "What are you talking about, Ishi? You don't think I'd be okay with dying if the rest of you could live?"
"Huh?" Ishi responded. "No, girl, that's not what I meant. What you said just seemed to me that you were, like, thinking you didn't matter. You know we can't just forget about you, right?"
"I'm…I'm not sure about that, actually," Mine said hesitantly. "What about Michio? Or Yasuo? Do you guys miss them, even after what they did?"
"Are you addressing all of us now?" Mareo asked. "Because as we've stated previously, Michio is a tricky subject. He seemed nice enough, and yet after only a couple of days, he attempted to get away with murder."
"What about Yasuo?" Mariko asked. "He was really nice and helpful, wasn't he? And what he did was definitely wrong, but…I don't know how much of it was his fault. He was under that drug's effects, and was misled by that note, and became really angry as a result. There's no way he'd do that if his mind wasn't being messed with."
"Well, fine," Mine conceded. "I guess if you want, you can miss Yasuo. That's…that's okay, I think. Me, though? You really shouldn't. I'm just…" She paused to sniffle loudly. "I'm just an idiot that let herself get manipulated by an uncaring creep. It's my fault, at the end of the day."
"Idiot?!" Ishi asked in shock.
"Uncaring?" Bankei asked, as if offended. "I must say, Mine, that's very harsh. I definitely cared about you to some degree before all this started."
"Before what?" Eryu questioned angrily. "Before you decided to get her to throw her life away for revenge?"
"Well, yes," Mine replied unflinchingly. "There was a time in which she interested me. She definitely had a lifestyle that was different from mine. Not the most, well, proper lifestyle for a young woman, I wouldn't say, but a different one nonetheless. Since she approached me first, I figured I would entertain her. Perhaps, I thought, in time, if I could catch her interest with some more, well, normal pursuits, I could do the world some good. That's why, for a time, I tried to gain her attention by sharing what I knew about my own personal pursuit, that of course being the study of mythology and religion."
"I didn't really understand most of it, to be honest," Mine admitted glumly.
"Yes, I could tell," Bankei responded unamusedly. "After a while I figured, if nothing else, having someone that could provide aid to me when necessary would be useful, and I was correct. And then…" She let out a sigh. "You had to go out and make a new friend. A new potential influence. And I must say, in regards to influence, you chose perhaps the worst friend possible."
"Who, me?" Ishi responded, baffled. "I'm the one who was a bad influence?!"
"Oh, I'm not saying I wasn't," Bankei clarified, her voice gaining a rather bitter edge to it. "But you still were. With your obnoxious, thick-headed, flat out lurid behavior…I would dare say you're an insult to women everywhere with your terrible disposition. The moment you started spending time together, any hope I may have still had that I could mold Mine into a respectable young woman was completely quashed."
"I honestly don't want to know what your definition of a 'respectable young woman' is," Mariko commented.
"Well, then, you shouldn't be surprised that you were a close second in regards to worst influence," Bankei remarked callously.
"Woah, woah!" Ishi said. "What the hell are you talking about, saying Mariko and I are 'insulting to women' or whatever?! You're the one who doesn't give a shit about anyone, including Mine! You think I'm terrible, 'cause I like to live by my own rules, and don't mind a little raunchiness here and there? So what? It's better than being stuck up like you. You wouldn't even enjoy yourself at a pool party because it's 'immodest' or some shit. I mean, what the hell?! What's wrong with showing off a little, huh?"
Bankei hardly did anything as Ishi accused her of being "stuck up". She just looked rather annoyed, and once she got a chance to say something herself, she didn't seem like she wanted to argue back.
"I suppose it's hard for someone like you to understand," she said. "That point continues to come off as predictable. I truly am sorry, whore, but being confident in your way of life does not make it acceptable. I'll leave it at that."
"What did you just call me?!" Ishi exclaimed in shock.
"Bankei!" Eryu snapped. "If this is what you're really like under your shallow politeness, then I gotta say you're somehow worse than I ever thought you were!"
"That sort of statement seems long overdue, considering what we've established," Mareo pointed out.
"You know what? You're right," Eryu replied, no less angry. "This is a long time coming. Bankei, what the hell is wrong with you?! You think you can manipulate Mine into helping you kill two people, and get away with it?! Especially when all you're doing now is admitting to us how much of a terrible person you are?!"
Bankei shook her head dismissively. "Alright, first of all, this is not that sort of admission. Don't be a child. Secondly, I feel as though 'manipulate' is a rather questionable choice of words in this case. If you're going to speak of me with such vitriol, the least you can do is not embarrass yourself further." She paused, only to flash a smile at him. "Or do so to your heart's content. It hardly matters to me. After all, if nothing else, it's actually quite entertaining to watch you act this way."
"Oh, for fuck's sake," Kimi groaned. "First Haru and I getting angry at each other isn't funny anymore, now this shit? This doesn't even make sense to me at this point."
"As I've said in the past, the issue I had was how basic and one-note your bickering was," Bankei reminded her. "The least you could have done was try to have some legitimate, non-petty reason behind your mutual inanity. Or, at the very least, you could have switched it up a bit here and there."
"Oh, shut the fuck up, you fucking bitch!" Kimi snapped back.
Naoko was feeling pretty damn irritated. Things had gotten out of hand quite a bit ago, obviously, but now it seemed like Bankei was really starting to get people worked up, himself included. He needed to keep them on something at least resembling the right track. "Hang on a minute," he interjected. "Bankei, what the hell do you mean by saying that 'manipulate' isn't a good way to describe what you did to Mine? It sounds to me like it's pretty accurate."
"Fair enough," Bankei conceded. "I suppose it depends on your reasoning behind thinking that what I did was manipulative. How do you think I manipulated Mine?"
"You convinced her into thinking that something from her past was the fault of Kimi and Haru," Mariko interjected. "That's it, right? That sounds like it'd be pretty awful, but…I still don't know if they actually did it or not."
"I feel like it actually was true," Naoko replied. "I guess it's still possible it wasn't them, though. Either seemed like it'd work in this context."
"Because the outcome would have been the same for her purposes, yes?" Yori asked.
"Basically," Naoko replied.
"I still don't entirely buy Haru and Kimi being all buddy-buddy," Eryu weighed in. "It's not impossible, but it probably could've been someone else."
"So, none of you know for absolute certain," Bankei gathered. "Very well. I suppose it's time I explained what happened in full detail."
She smiled, and began to speak of what occurred a mere couple of days ago. On a whim, she had suggested to Mine that they could sit down and watch the newest work by Kimi together. Mine agreed, and, well, they watched it. And, as they had determined, it just so happened to have been the second one.
Bankei and Mine were in the medical room, the former by necessity and the latter by her own free will. Bankei was lying there in her bed, while Mine was seated on a chair she had brought over to her bedside so that they could reasonably watch from the same phone screen. Mine had opted to play the video off of her own phone, which Bankei appreciated, since while she wasn't very explicit about it with anyone at that point, her only available hand was…unreliable. Mine just held it horizontally on her hands so they both could view it, which was as nice of an arrangement as one could expect to come up with for watching what was, in Bankei's opinion, a rather mediocre piece of animation.
In fact, she was more interested in Mine's reactions to the video than the video itself. Mine didn't seem much like she liked it herself, even from the outset, and Bankei couldn't help but relate. They both hardly were amused by what happened in the animation itself, and Bankei was starting to lose interest, thinking that maybe this had been a waste of time. That was before something happened in it that seemed to get an odd reaction out of Mine. It was like she became legitimately unsettled by something in it that she'd seen. Bankei didn't see anything amiss. Why that reaction? She decided to ask after the video was done.
"This was made by a supposedly brilliant animator?" Bankei asked aloud.
"Well, yeah," Mine replied, still looking a bit perturbed. "I guess she's good at animating and stuff, but she's not good at writing."
"Eh-heheh," Bankei pretended to laugh. "Certainly. I must say, though, it looked like there was something in it that you really didn't like."
Mine's eyes widened. "You, uh, noticed that?"
"Of course I did," Bankei replied. "What was it that was wrong?"
"It was that…that one scene, when that girl was getting really mad and lashing out. It just…it reminded me of something."
Bankei was legitimately confused. "Do you have a history of lashing out at others?"
"Huh? No, nothing like that," Mine insisted. "It was just that one point where the girl in the video pushed another girl into that room, and the door closed behind her."
"What did that remind you of?" Bankei asked.
"Something…personal," Mine admitted. "It probably wouldn't be a good idea to talk about it."
"Mine, what are you talking about?" Bankei asked, giving her a frown. "You're obviously alluding to something from your past. If it's bothering you that much, it must be important."
"It's not important, just something that happened to me once," Bankei explained, fidgeting with her hands.
"Well, whatever it is, I wouldn't mind hearing it," Bankei said assuringly.
"I dunno," Mine replied. "I haven't told anyone else about it yet. Not Ishi, that's for sure. I almost told Naoko once."
"You tried to speak with Naoko once about it?" Bankei asked.
"I just sort of brought it up," Mine explained. "We were talking about how I'm claustrophobic, and so getting trapped in enclosed spaces kinda freaks me out."
"Claustrophobic, eh?" Bankei responded. She'd end up keeping quiet about learning that, but entombed the information nonetheless. "I see. That must be hard for you. In a place like this, a phobia such as that must be awful."
"It could be worse, I guess," Mine said unsuredly, looking increasingly off-put by the subject matter. "At least it's kind of a big place? There are small rooms, sure, but not too small. Not like…"
"Not like…what?" Bankei asked curiously.
"It's…" Mine swallowed warily. "If I tell you this, you won't go off and tell everybody about it, will you?"
"In my condition, that would be rather difficult," Bankei replied half-jokingly. "Really, you don't have to worry about that."
"Okay," Mine sighed. "Maybe it'd help if I talk about this, then. Might make it easier to think about. Thinking about stuff from high school is hard as-is."
"Oh, it's from high school?" Bankei asked.
"Uh-huh," Mine replied. "I, uh, was at high school. I don't remember when, exactly. Maybe…the latter years? That's where things get really blurry, for the most part, but I remember, kinda vividly. There were these kids my age. Two of them. One of them, they…" Mine stopped to take some breaths, clearly becoming even more nervous about speaking.
"Go on," Bankei said. It sounded curious, but was also kind of an order at the same time.
"Right," Mine said. "I don't know what I did to them exactly, but they…they must've hated me. One of them pushed me when I didn't expect it, and I fell into this room. I think it was a janitor's closet, but the janitor wasn't around. I don't think anybody else was around at the time. The other one slammed the door in front of me, and it got really dark all of a sudden. I got up and tried to find the doorknob, but once I got my hands on it, it wouldn't budge."
"That's strange," Bankei commented. "If the door to the closet was open, that means it was unlocked, right?"
"I guess?" Mine responded cluelessly, wiping fresh sweat from her brow. "One of them must've done something to the lock, or maybe they swiped the key at some point. I don't know, but it was dark, and cramped, and I…I was stuck there. The whole time, I felt like…I don't…It was over half an hour before someone found me. I just…I…"
Bankei contemplated what to say next. Mine seemed like she couldn't avoid freaking herself out when bringing up what had happened to her. That made it seem difficult for her to ask Mine more about the topic. If she got too obviously intrusive, Mine could become upset, and refuse to answer any further questions. Prying further was risky for sure, but then again, Bankei didn't see much harm in a bit of risk. Besides, she was legitimately curious. The incident Mine was speaking of…it happened to her in high school? That was just odd. Of course, there was a lot of information that was left out of her explanation of the event, but still. What a shabby, disreputable high school she must have gone to for something like that to be allowed to happen.
Well, Bankei was definitely curious, so she decided to inquire further. Perhaps in the future, she could even use this knowledge in some way. It could give her some emotional leverage over Mine, for example.
"I'm terribly sorry to hear all that," she said sympathetically. "It must have been awful. Those two must have had no respect for you as a person whatsoever. Such awful behavior."
"I-I know," Mine agreed. "Those pieces of shit, they…" She seemed to realize what she said and stopped herself. "Oh. Okay, that might have been a bit much, sorry."
"Oh, no need to apologize for my sake," Bankei assured her. "I'm sure that's an apt description for them, at any rate. I could only imagine how brutish they would have to be to do something like that. What were they, exactly? Athletic boys, perhaps?"
"Huh?" Mine responded. "No, no, not like that. One of them was kind of…Oh god." Mine took a deep breath to try and calm herself before continuing. "I remember one of them was tall, and a bit beefy, I guess, but the other one. The other one was short. A lot shorter than you or me, I mean. Aside from that, I-"
Mine stopped herself yet again, this time more abruptly. She looked like she'd realized something, and was in the process of thinking it over. Whatever she was thinking over, Bankei had an idea. She just said one of them was short. The conversation they were having started because of Kimi's work, and Kimi was, well, quite short. Could that have been a coincidence?
"Short, you say?" Bankei asked slowly. "If they were short, then it sounds as if-"
Bankei was interrupted by a sharp, loud gasp that came from Mine. She realized something then and there, it seemed, and it terrified her. Her eyes widened in shock, and her jaw dropped. She began to breathe rapidly as her face contorted into a look of utter terror. It was a fascinating sight, truly.
"Oh! Oh my god!" Mine exclaimed. "I-I…I remembered!"
"You remembered?" Bankei asked as if worried. "Remembered what?"
"Those two! I remembered their faces! They were…Kimi! Kimi and Haru! I-I-I don't get it! Th-those two hate each other! And we-I mean, I, I thought that…!"
"Mine, please, calm down," Bankei said, trying to hide the fact that she was just as surprised. Kimi and Haru? The two of them could have been behind what happened to her? "Are you sure that it was them?"
"Y-Yes, absolutely!" Mine confirmed, still freaked out. "I had no idea, but then I thought about it, and…it all makes sense. Kimi, and Haru, they…they did it! And Kimi, she…"
Mine cut herself off yet again, seemingly out of discomfort rather than fear.
"God, sorry. This is…I don't think my body can handle this right now. I need to use the, uh, ladies room."
"That's okay," Bankei replied. "I understand why this is such a shock. Please, just…take me with you. I'm afraid this conversation has become too important to simply ignore."
"Oh, right, okay, sure," Mine said quickly.
Bankei was carried by Mine all the way to Mine's room, where Bankei was laid down on the bed while Mine was in the bathroom. That gave Bankei plenty of time to think about how to approach this new situation. She hadn't been expecting it, that was for sure. If Mine were to be believed, Kimi and Haru were friends with each other. It seemed odd, but it wasn't like Bankei was assuming Mine had misremembered the situation. Bankei could hardly make a suggestion before she suddenly seemed to realize the apparent truth. Said truth was something Mine was sure of, so Bankei saw no need to challenge her on the idea, especially since she had nothing in mind that would disprove her.
Besides, even if she did, this was an interesting opportunity. Haru was by no means pleasant, obviously, and Kimi had been a real thorn in her side for a little while now, with her petulant vulgarity. It wasn't even cute or funny. It was just annoying. Her relationship with Haru was interesting for a time, at least, but even that got boring after a while. The two of them were really shaping up to be a nuisance. Perhaps this was a good opportunity to do something about them. She already had the outline of a plan in her head. She just needed to convince Mine to help her.
Some minutes passed before Mine exited the bathroom, looking as shocked as she had initially. Bankei wasted no time listening to her moping.
"I always knew those two were nothing but trouble," she said aloud, catching Mine's attention.
"Well, I-I guess they are, yeah," Mine agreed shakily, taking a seat on the bed next to her. "I just never knew they were ever friends with each other. Or that they did something so awful to me."
"You don't remember why they did that, correct?" Bankei asked.
"Yeah, that's right. I…I just don't get it. Did they not know at the time how awful what they did would be for me? Even if they didn't, I mean…I don't know what I did, but whatever I might've done…I didn't deserve that! I just, I didn't!"
Mine suddenly looked really angry. Fists clenched, a bitter, hateful expression…She must've already been vengeful to some extent. Good for Bankei, since that made her job a lot easier.
"Oh, I'm sure you didn't," Bankei said comfortingly. "And I'd say they deserved to be punished grievously for that transgression alone. Do you remember what happened next?"
"No," Mine replied. "I'm sure I told someone, but if I did…I still don't remember anything else related to them. It was just that. I don't know if I ever saw them again after that."
"I wouldn't exactly want to, in your position," Bankei commented. "I would absolutely despise them, even if they were punished afterwards."
"Yeah, I'm sure you feel that way about Haru," Mine agreed. "The way he hurt you, and…and what? He's in a cell now, I guess. But, I mean…will that really make him a better person? Does he really regret what he did?"
"I doubt it. Men like him never change," Bankei said. "And Kimi…whatever punishment that might have been levied against her, it couldn't have stuck."
"I know, right?!" Mine responded forcefully. She looked to be getting fired up now. "Even now, she's just awful! Did you know she tried to apologize to me, and said that I was handicapped?!"
Bankei was legitimately surprised. "Is that so? I…I must say, even for her, that's quite bad. Even when apologizing, she's absolutely scathing."
"I know!" Mine shouted. "Totally awful! I just, I can't believe it!"
"Really? Because I can."
Bankei's words snapped Mine out of her vehemence for a moment. "What?"
"Those two are awful. I can hardly find much in the way of redeeming qualities between the both of them," Bankei spoke frankly. "After what Haru did to me…I think it's safe to say the both of them have done more than enough harm to all of us."
"Well…Yeah! Absolutely!" Mine agreed, still a little pumped. "But it's not like they can just 'change'. They could've done that years ago, but they didn't!"
"Yes, I agree," Bankei nodded, a smirk appearing on her face. "I suppose for people like them, there's not much else we can do, other than..."
Mine looked at her expectantly. "Other than what? What do we do about them?"
"It was all quite trivial from there," Bankei said simply. "I convinced her of their worthlessness, gave her a little false hope, and told her my plan. Of course, I lied about the final step. She honestly believed that me being declared guilty was a part of my plan. Can you believe that?"
Mine stood a couple steps away from the group, looking like she was fighting back tears. Naoko saw this and felt all the angrier. After everything Bankei had just told them, now she was trying to say Mine was stupid? That wasn't something Naoko wanted to leave unchallenged. Rather appropriately, it seemed like Ishi had the same sentiment.
"Shut up! That story doesn't say anything her being dumb! It shows you took advantage of her!" she argued. "I don't agree with Haru or Kimi being worthless or anything, but I bet anyone here would feel bad for her after finding out what they did to her."
"Bankei sure doesn't sound like she cared," Kimi pointed out. "The bitch fuckin' slandered me in front of Mine. Talking about how I'm worthless and all that. That's fucked up, y'know that, you crazy bitch?"
"Now, now, Kimi," Bankei said, shaking her head disapprovingly. "You being worthless was simply my honest opinion. I would hardly say it's slander, even if I were to assert it as truth."
"First off, you kinda did," Kimi responded, unwilling to put up with her. "Second, fuck off."
Bankei sighed and gave her a condescending look. "Now, Kimi, I believe you need to think before you speak. After all, you said that I didn't care about what happened to her."
"So what? You obviously didn't," Kimi asserted.
"Well, what about you?" Bankei challenged. "You were one of the perpetrators of the shameful act that scarred her. You can accuse me of being unempathetic all you like, but you can't distract from your own callous apathy."
"Woah, woah, woah!" Kimi said. "Don't you try and turn this around on me!"
"I hate to say it, but…," Takeshi said. He didn't look happy about speaking up, but then again, nobody seemed happy. "You were the one who hurt Mine. And you said some pretty bad things to her, too, apparently."
"THOSE ARE BOTH TRUE. BUT I AM AFRAID THIS HAS GONE ON LONG ENOUGH. KIMI, IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SAVE FACE, YOU MAY APOLOGIZE TO HER BEFORE THE EXECUTION BEGINS."
Kimi looked up at the large screen angrily. "You keep out of this, motherfucker! Besides, if anyone here's gonna have to apologize, it's Bankei, and it's pretty damn obvious she's not gonna!"
"I SUPPOSE THAT'S A FAIR POINT. HOWEVER, AT THIS POINT, I THINK IT WOULD BE BENEFICIAL FOR YOU TO SHOW SOME HUMILITY GOING FORWARD. YOU ARE STILL PARTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS, AFTER ALL."
Naoko gave it some thought. He couldn't exactly say that IMONO was entirely wrong. In fact, after what they learned about what Kimi had said and done, he definitely wasn't happy with her himself. "I hate to say it, but IMONO has a point. Kimi, I think you should say something to her now while you have the chance."
Kimi obviously didn't like hearing this, but didn't argue with him about it. Instead, she looked all around her, and clearly noticed how everyone was looking at her. They seemed like they were, for the most part, expecting her to actually apologize properly. That was what Naoko was hoping for, anyway. And, well, she looked over at Mine after a little while.
"Alright, I'm only gonna say this once," Kimi sighed. "I'm sorry for what I did to you, and what I said…but, you also almost killed me. So…yeah, that's pretty fucked up."
Mine stared back at her guiltily, but didn't speak directly to her when she actually spoke. Instead, she looked up at everyone else. "I…I know. I know it was wrong. I was angry, I wasn't quite…myself, I guess. I didn't…I didn't know I could be so angry."
"Does that mean you're not angry at me anymore, or…?" Kimi asked confusedly.
Mine looked down at her again. Tears had begun to form, and she was clearly ashamed of what she'd done, but her words nevertheless carried with them a hint of resentment. "I…No. No, I'm still angry at you."
"What?!" Kimi responded, baffled. "Are you serious? I apologized to you, like I was supposed to."
"You did it to save face," Mine replied bitterly. "You're still an awful person, and I don't accept your apology."
"Hang on a minute, what-?" Kimi said, legitimately confused. "You were supposed to-..." She stopped to take a long, deep breath. "You know what? I…I don't know why I care about that. I feel like I shouldn't, but...I guess I do? Whatever. I'm just gonna leave now. I've had enough of this shit."
"I'M AFRAID YOU CANNOT. THE EXECUTION IS ABOUT TO BEGIN. ALL MUST ATTEND."
"Right. I understand," Mine said, wiping away her tears.
"Girl! Don't let this creep get to you! You don't deserve this!" Ishi said, almost pleadingly. "If anyone deserves to be punished, it's Bankei! She MADE you do it!"
"ACTUALLY, GIVEN THE RULES THAT HAVE BEEN LAID OUT, BANKEI TECHNICALLY CANNOT BE EXECUTED FOR THIS. HOWEVER, I SUPPOSE IN THIS CASE, SOME FORM OF PUNISHMENT WOULD ONLY BE FAIR."
"The rules weren't made with a situation such as this in mind, were they?" Yori asked.
"YES, PRECISELY."
"Ishi, it's…it's okay," Mine said. "Don't get too broken up over this. Please, stay strong, for me."
"Huh?" Ishi responded in disbelief. "But…But!"
"ENOUGH. WE CANNOT DELAY ANY LONGER. IT IS TIME."
With that abrupt interruption, the spectacle that would serve as Mine's final moments was set in motion.
(RUNNING FROMALLSIDES-DOT-EXE)